Independence Day reflections: Life, liberty and the pursuit of bigger government
As the last fireworks went silent on Independence Day 2025, the countdown began for a truly monumental anniversary: Next year will mark the United States’ 250th birthday. This is cause for celebration and also caution. Democracies and republics are fragile, and once lost, they are difficult to regain.
As our semiquincentennial approaches, I’ve been mulling what our forefathers would think of the United States’ trajectory. Candidly, I believe they would be impressed with many of our accomplishments—rising from 13 fledgling colonies to be the free world’s leader. However, they would doubtlessly be disappointed in the erosion of our founding principles and leaders’ malfeasance, despite the framers attempting to create a more perfect union.
Just about every American man, woman and child knows our national story: Americans grew weary of British rule and taxation without representation. So the 13 colonies revolted and secured their independence. Given that American patriots were a bunch of high-minded rabble-rousers who loathed taxes and big government, it is no surprise that they adopted a constitution giving citizens inalienable rights and curtailing government’s power.
The framers modeled the American system, in part, after the Roman Republic with some notable improvements. Our forefathers instituted a separation of powers between the three branches of government, which created checks and balances and limited presidential power.
But how has that turned out?
For some time this model worked relatively well. Each branch served as a counter-balance to the other branches but also depended on them. Fast forward many years, and Congress has ceded much of its authority to the executive who often rules unilaterally by executive order. To put this into perspective, President George Washington issued a total of 8 executive orders during his 8-year tenure. Presidents Obama, Trump I, Biden and Trump II have instituted 276, 220, 162 and 165, respectively—acts that would certainly rankle our founders who feared a powerful executive.
They would also recoil at the notion of suspending habeas corpus. Enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, habeas corpus is a “fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual’s freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action,” according to Cornell Law School. The White House has explored suspending it to make it easier to deport those accused of being in the country illegally.
What’s more, our government’s power, size and scope has grown exponentially in the modern era, as has our mounting national debt. This would cause our founders to grouse, even though they were no strangers to it. By around 1791, the U.S. had $77.1 million of debt, but not everyone was entirely concerned at the time. “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing,” Alexander Hamilton retorted. For the young nation, debt was a necessity in order to fund a war of independence and the government until it got on its proverbial feet. By 1835, President Andrew Jackson paid off the national debt.
Today, the U.S. is the richest nation on Earth and possibly the most indebted. Congress hasn’t balanced a budget in over 20 years and keeps irresponsibly adding to our seemingly insurmountable debt, which stands at around $37 trillion and counting. Our founders would find this wholly unnecessary and entirely excessive, and would be troubled by our foreign policy too.
In his farewell address, President George Washington warned against foreign entanglements. “[He] exhorted Americans to set aside their violent likes and dislikes of foreign nations,” the State Department notes, “lest they be controlled by their passions: ‘The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave’ Washington’s remarks have served as an inspiration for American isolationism.”
Washington’s advice was prudent but has largely been cast aside. In fact, many American politicians look at military conflicts like some people look at their troubled ex-lovers: They just can’t quit them. Some estimates suggest that the United States has been involved in as many as 400 military interventions since 1776. Some of these were necessary, but certainly not all. They have stretched American resources, created bitter enemies and resulted in myriad deaths. This is far from what Washington desired for the young country.
Since our government was modeled after Rome’s, it seems fitting to quote a scene from my favorite movie Gladiator in which Marcus Aurelius speaks of the Republic’s fragility, which could also describe the American experiment: “There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish.”
Looking back at our framers’ actions, it is clear that they realized maintaining a free society and a democratic republic was a daunting challenge. Benjamin Franklin even famously quipped, “A republic if you can keep it,” and if he and his colleagues were here today, I’d imagine they would voice plenty of disappointment.